In N.J. Boy's Death, a Grim Warning About Raising Money Door to Door

The slaying of an 11-year-old as he went door to door selling
wrapping paper and candy near his suburban New Jersey home has sent a
cold wave of caution over school and youth-group leaders who rely on
such sales to finance everything from band uniforms to trips
abroad.

Most school districts and youth organizations say their rules
already highlight the dangers of door-to-door selling. Some ban the
practice outright; others restrict it for safety reasons.

And even where home solicitation is a fund-raising mainstay, it is
waning in popularity. Experts say it is steadily being replaced by
safer and less-intrusive methods.

But the highly publicized killing of Edward Peter Werner last month
has brought a surge of renewed vigilance.

The school district where the boy lived has suspended all
fund-raising activities by students, and a New Jersey state legislator
vowed to introduce a bill that would ban door-to-door selling by
children for schools.

At least one district in eastern Pennsylvania is considering
adopting its first-ever policy to forbid door-to-door sales and to
limit incentives in fund-raising projects that might encourage students
to skirt such a ban.

And almost half a continent away, the Iowa PTA renewed warnings
about letting children go out unattended, even in familiar
neighborhoods. "Sometimes good things can come out of bad," said
President Laurie Musel, who wrote the group's statement and sent it to
newspapers across the state. "If we can alert parents, then we've done
some good."

Two Children

Edward Werner's death left immediate marks on Jackson Township,
N.J., especially those closest to the crime and some parents who may
have thought their neighborhood was safe for older children on a short
tether.

The 6th grader at Christa McAuliffe Middle School had been a top
seller in previous PTA fund-raisers and was apparently working toward a
pair of walkie-talkies when he disappeared while going door to door on
Saturday, Sept. 27. Tracking dogs found his body late on Sept. 29 in
woods he often used as a shortcut.

Fifteen-year-old Sam Manzie, of a nearby neighborhood in Jackson
Township, was charged Oct. 1 with murder, sexual assault, and robbery.
Local authorities charge that the teenager raped and strangled the boy
"in a chance encounter." Last week, the Ocean County prosecutor asked
that Mr. Manzie be tried as an adult.

Mr. Manzie was himself sexually victimized, prosecutors said. He
carried on a relationship with a 43-year-old Long Island man he met on
the Internet. Three days before he allegedly killed Edward, Mr.
Manzie's parents had unsuccessfully asked a family court judge to
commit their son to a psychiatric institution.

Incentives Mean Money

The National PTA tells its members that "children should
never be exploited or used as fund-raisers." It also warns
parents against letting fund raising for a school become the primary
function of a local PTA and encourages local groups to push for public
financing of school needs.

It stops short, however, of forbidding fund raising entirely.

The National Association of Fund Raisers & Direct Sellers, an
Atlanta-based trade group representing about half the estimated 1,350
companies that help school and youth groups raise money, issued a
policy this summer saying it does not endorse door-to-door selling.
"It's not a widespread practice from what members tell me," the group's
executive director, Russell A. Lemieux, said last week. Rather, he
added, children and parents most often sell to friends, relatives, and
other associates.

But he defended the use of incentives, such as toys and electronic
equipment, which significantly increase the amount of money raised.

Mr. Lemieux said schools and other youth groups make about $2
billion a year from the sale of goods and services, while the industry
takes in gross revenues of about $2.5 billion.

Competition for Funds

The Girl Scouts of the United States of America has not discouraged
door-to-door sales of its popular cookies, but over the years the group
has put more strictures on how it should be done, said Sandra Jordan, a
spokeswoman for the Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital.

Starting in 1959, she said, girls were forbidden to enter the homes
of strangers. Today, even Girl Scouts of high school age are also told
to sell only in daylight hours and never to go door to door alone.

And door-to-door cookie sales are declining. Nationally, only about
25 percent of the boxes are sold at the doorstep these days, down from
about 50 percent a decade or so ago, Ms. Jordan said.

Unlike the Girl Scouts, some school districts ban school-sponsored
door-to-door solicitation altogether, or at least for younger
children.

The policy in the 15,000-student Billings, Mont., district
"basically says no, and that makes it pretty nice at the building
level," said Darrell Rud, the principal of Garfield Elementary School
there. Given the rising pressure in his community to buy on behalf of
good causes, Mr. Rud added, "I think the public appreciates our not
adding to the knock-knock at the door."

Loren K. Keim, the superintendent of the four-school
Whitehall-Coplay district near Allentown, Pa., will soon be talking
over such a policy with his school board and parents. "We're looking at
the situation to see if there are safeguards to prevent" door-to-door
selling by youngsters, he added, such as banning incentives.

The Nash-Rocky Mount district in North Carolina bars students up to
high school age from any school-sponsored fund raising. While parents'
groups as independent organizations would not be bound by such a
policy, parent organizations would generally seek the approval of the
school's principal, said Bob Kendall, a spokesman for the 8,500-student
district.

Even at the high school level, many parents would rather take
fund-raising sales into their own hands than ask their children to do
it, said Nancy Edwards, who just stepped down as chairman of the Band
Boosters at McGavock High School in Nashville, Tenn. One reason is
safety.

"We all think we live in a low-crime area," Ms. Edwards said, "but
nobody does anymore."

In the wake of the slaying of Edward Peter Werner, the National PTA has
posted on its Web site a statement of its fund-raising guidelines.

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